Saturday, July 27, 2013

Tesla is a California-based automobile manufacturer that exclusively
makes zero emission, battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Currently it is producing the Model S which
is a luxury sports sedan that seats five adults and, and with optional
rear-facing seats, two addition children.
Lately the Model S has been shaking up the auto industry by receiving
numerous awards including the prestigious Motor Trend Car of the Year Award, beating
all cars, not just electric vehicles. It also has received Consumer Reports
highest score ever for any car. The
Model S has very large batteries and, depending on the size the owner purchases,
it can travel between 208 - 265 miles on a charge based on EPA testing.

How do you usually charge a Model S?

Like most BEVs the Model S does most of its charging at home
overnight. Based on typical driver daily
commutes it usually only needs to be topped off overnight like your cell phone
and rarely needs a full charge. While it can charge from a normal 110v outlet,
in most instances this is not practical since for the larger battery it could
take as much as 66 hours. Most owners
install a high capacity 240 volt outlet in their garage similar to an electric
dryer outlet. This operates at 40 amps
and can fully charge the car in about 8 hours.
For those who need faster charging a device called a High Power Wall
Connector can be installed. It also operates at 240 volts and 80 amps and will
fully charge the car in about 4 hours.

Because of its large battery, the Model S needs a lot of power
to charge in a reasonable amount of time.
Unfortunately the vast majority of public charging stations have a
capacity that is lower than the owner’s home charging source and only charges
at 30 amps. As a result public chargers
are frequently not practical for Model S owners to use when traveling long
distances beyond their range. The
notable exception is when they are installed at hotelswhere the owner can conveniently charge overnight.

The charging discussed above is done with alternating current
(AC). The car has one or two on-board
chargers that take the AC electricity from these outlets or connectors and
converts it to direct current (DC) that the battery needs.

What is a Tesla Supercharger?

A Tesla Supercharger
is an industrial device that bypasses the Model S’s on-board AC chargers and
feeds very large amounts of DC directly into the Model S battery at high voltage. This can be as high as 255 amps at 380
volts. What this means is that a Model S can
obtain around 150 miles of range in as little as 20 minutes.

What is a Supercharger Station?

A Supercharger Station is a collection of Superchargers that
are being strategically built near major highways across the country at host
locations. Supercharger stations are
located near amenities like roadside diners, cafes, and shopping centers. A
Model S owner can stop for a quick meal, a restroom break and have their Model
S charged when they’re done. They are
placed to allow owners to drive from station to station with minimal stops.
Ultimately the network of stations is being built to permit travel across the
country. Tesla states that by 2015 98% of the US
population and parts of Canada will be covered by the network.

It is Tesla’s objective, where ever possible, is to add
canopies over the charging parking spaces, and to install photovoltaic arrays
on the canopies. Tesla plans to eventually install more solar
electric capacity than the fleet of Model Ss are consuming and to therefore produce
a net positive flow of energy to the grid.

What does it cost to charge at a Supercharger
Station?

There is no cost to charge at a Supercharger Station, for the
life of the Model S even if it is sold to another owner. So for road trips Model S owners are driving for free,
forever, and eventually on sunlight.

SUPERCHARGERS IN FLORIDA

Line
up of Model Ss at Supercharger Station at Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers. Photo credit: Alexis Meyer

So with that background, it should be obvious that the
arrival of a Supercharger stations in Florida is a very big deal for Model S
owners, but also to anyone who is concerned about the environment.

It’s also a big deal for the local economy. Joann Faiella, the Mayor of Port Saint Lucie
said she read the positive press about the Model S and the Supercharging
stations and had the vision to see that encouraging charging infrastructure in
her town would be good for local businesses.
So she reached out to Tesla to build the first Superchargers in the
state and they did. For the ribbon
cutting ceremony two dozen Teslas charged up for free. Afterwards the crowd of Tesla owners with
their family and friends enjoyed the restaurants conveniently located
nearby. This is not a one-time
event. From now on individual Model S
owners will converge on Port Saint Lucie as they travel up and down I-95 to top
off their batteries and enjoy the local amenities.

The day after the Port Saint Lucie opening, a Supercharger station at the Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers had its ribbon cutting ceremony. Both locations have charging stations to permit 8 Model Ss to charge simultaneously.

Line
up of Model Ss at Supercharger Station at Port Saint Lucie Town Center. Photo
credit: Lawrence Chanin

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Compared to the same
period in 2012, electric vehicle sales doubled in the first 6 months of this
year. According to this U.S. EnergyDepartment Release, “plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) sales tripled from
about 17,000 in 2011 to about 52,000 in 2012. During the first six months
of 2013, Americans bought over 40,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), more
than twice as many sold during the same period in 2012.”

Surely, this sharp
rise in sales is due, at least in part, to the reality that it costs on average
$1.18 per “gallon” of electricity to power an electric vehicle compared to the
national average of $3.49 for the dirty oil that conventional automobiles consume.
U.S. consumers can use the Department of Energy’s newest tool, the
eGallon, to compare the costs of fueling electric vehicles vs. driving
on gasoline depending on location.

The U.S Energy Department also reports that sales of modern electric vehicles, which entered the
U.S. market in late 2010, are out-pacing those of the early years of hybrid
vehicles.

This is good news for
our environment and our air quality here in Florida.

Making the switch to electric vehicles
will make a distinct and measurable difference in the amount of oil we consume
and the amount of tailpipe emissions each one of us are responsible for. Every conventional internal combustion engine on the road that we replace with a zero emission electric
vehicle, we are displacing thousands of gallons of gasoline and tons of
smog-producing air pollutants – not to mention saving big bucks on our gasoline
costs. It’s a win-win.

EVs are the cleanest cars around, even after taking into account
the electricity needed to charge them. Even better yet, as we retire more coal
plants and bring cleaner sources of power online, the emissions produced from
charging an electric vehicle will drop even further. But as long as our highways are dominated by
gas stations rather than EV-charging stations, it will be very hard for us to
take these crucial steps to move beyond oil.

To learn more and see how you can get
involved, visit our Florida Healthy Air Campaign Facebook page.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Today, a coalition of
environmental and clean water groups, including the Sierra Club, Earthjustice
and Clean Water Action, released a new report demonstrating the
importance of strong U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards that
limit toxic water pollution from coal plants for Florida. The report, “Closing
the Floodgates: How the Coal Industry Is Poisoning Our Water and How We Can
Stop It” reviewed water permits for 386 coal plants across the country, and
sought to identify whether states have upheld the Clean Water Act by
effectively protecting families from toxic water pollution.

As the analysis
relates to Florida:

At least seven
plants discharge heavy metals into the waters of Florida. No plant in
Florida has permit limits on all of the toxic metals of concern, such as
arsenic, boron, cadmium, mercury, and selenium.

Rice Creek has
become an impaired waterway because of pollution from the Seminole
Generating Station in Putnam County. Now, instead of addressing
concerns about toxic metals in its discharge, the Seminole Generating
Station directly discharges into the St. Johns River.

Florida
does not ensure that the permit limits it does have are stringent enough
to protect our water.

“This
report makes it clear that Florida utilities need a lesson in common sense:
dumping poisons into our water without disclosing threatens health, drinking
water and recreation opportunities,” said Julia Hathaway, Florida Sierra Club
Beyond Coal organizer. “Environmental Protection Agency limits on these toxics
in our water will prevent children from getting sick and save lives.”

Existing guidelines
written to limit toxics discharged from coal plants do not cover many of the
worst pollutants such as in 2011 when the Big Bend Power Station in
Hillsborough County discharged 1206 lbs of selenium into the Big Bend Bayou.
These guidelines have not been updated in 30 years. In April 2013 the
Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first ever national standards for
toxics dumped into waterways from coal plants.

The Sierra Club’s
Florida Beyond Coal campaign and Clean Water Action are organizing to support
the strongest options for these “effluent limitation guidelines” that will
limit the amount of toxic chemicals that are dumped into our waterways.
These standards will also require all coal plants to monitor and report
the amount of toxics dumped into our water, giving us detailed information for
the first time about the types and amounts of dangerous chemicals in our water.

“Limiting the amount
of toxics in our water through commonsense standards will strengthen our
economy, protect our health, and ensure our water is safe to drink and our fish
are safe to eat,” said Kathleen Aterno, Florida Director of Clean Water Action.

“There is technology
available to keep toxins from coal plants out of our water, and we should
simply insist that these corporations use it,” added Bradley Marshall, attorney
with Earthjustice.

The new report’s
nationwide findings were similarly shocking:

Of the 274 coal
plants that discharge coal ash and scrubber wastewater into waterways, nearly
70 percent (188) have no limits on the amounts of toxic metals like
arsenic, boron, cadmium, mercury, and selenium they are allowed to dump
into public waters.

Of these 274
coal plants, more than one-third (102) have no requirements to monitor
or report discharges of toxic metals like arsenic, boron, cadmium,
mercury, and selenium to federal authorities.

A total of 71
coal plants discharge toxic water pollution into waterways that have
already been declared as impaired.Of these plants that are dumping
toxic metals into impaired waterways, nearly three out of four coal
plants (59) had no permit that limited the amount of toxic metals it
could dump.

More than half
of the coal plants surveyed (187) are operating with an expired Clean
Water Act permit. 53 of these power plants are operating with permits
that expired five or more years ago.

The new report also
reviewed red-line copies of the EPA’s proposed coal plant water pollution
standards or “effluent limitation guidelines” obtained through Freedom of
Information Act requests, finding that the White House’s Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) caved to coal industry pressure and took the highly unusual
and improper step of writing new weak options into the draft guidelines
prepared by the EPA’s expert staff.

The seven coal plants include:

Tampa Electric Company's Big Bend plant in Hillsborough County

Gulf Power Company's Crist electric generating plant in Escambia County

Gulf Power Company's Lansing Smith generating plant in Bay County

Tampa Electric Company's Polk plant in Polk County

Gulf Power Company's Scholz Electric generating plant in Jackson County

Seminole Electric Cooperative's Seminole plant in Putnam County

Jacksonville Electric Authority's St. Johns River power plant in Duval County

Why: Nuclear expansion is dead in America. Only your voice
can stop it in Miami and move this region to a sustainable future.

Why not build more nuclear reactors in Miami?

Cost prohibitive: FPL’s expansion would cost $25 billion.
The extremely high cost is why America has moved away from nuclear.

Nuclear Atlantis: Scientists have confirmed the area will be
completely underwater due to sea level rise in a matter of decades.

Non-renewable: There is no safe place to store the
radioactive waste in an area to soon be underwater.

Voracious thirst: Nuclear’s dirty secret is that it takes
the water people need to live.

Plentiful and safe alternatives: Solar power, on rooftops,
warehouses and dedicated plants is plentiful and cheaper than nuclear.

Deadly consequences: An accident from a direct hurricane strike,
malfunction or human error could lead to catastrophe for millions of people.
Fukishima also clustered its reactors on the edge of the sea.

Nothing’s sacred: The reactor expansion is on the edge of
Biscayne National Park and power line routes may be inside, on the edge of or
just outside Everglades National Park. The plan also calls for massive wetland
destruction.

Waste dump: The plan calls for potentially-contaminated
wastewater to be pumped into the ground and where it goes is anyone’s guess.

More dates for public comment sessions where you can speak
up about Turkey Point Units 6 & 7 siting issues including the transmission
corridors within Everglades National Park and along US1.